"to observe the courtship and mating of the
tigress you saw. She and a male lived togeth
er, day and night, for a week. There were
various displays: The female gave her mating
roar and sprayed, the male answered in kind.
"It's quite a rough affair, their mating. One
day I came on a kill site and followed the
dragline to where the two were. He sniffed
her, got excited, gave a mating call, and be
gan to circle her. After some play, they mated.
Afterward, they disappeared.
"Then I heard the mating call again and
the sound of a big scuffle. When I saw them
later, their coats were marked by bites and
cuts. They kept together for some time, then
went their own ways.
"The gestation period for a tiger is 95 to
110 days. The newborn are just slightly big
ger than dog puppies, and usually number
four or five, although the average survival
rate is only about two. The tigress rears them
by herself, first bringing food to the den. In
time she will take the cubs out for direct feed
ing on a kill.
"Within the first few months they begin
their understudies at hunting; sometimes
they play a hide-and-seek game with their
mother. As she conceals herself in the grass,
the cubs come searching. She raises her tail,
flicks it, then suddenly shifts it, and they
learn to pounce and grab. Later the cubs join
the mother in the hunt. Sometimes they fail.
"The training goes on for one and a half to
two years, until the cubs leave the mother.
She then may mate again. The cubs often
stay together for a time; they are too inexperi
enced to establish themselves alone. By three
years they are off on their own and start to
establish their territories."
Mr. Panwar believes that the survival of
the tiger is assured: "There is no question of
them being wiped out in preserves like this.
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